Crisis On Infinite Earths: 36 Easter Eggs, Cameos And References You Probably Missed
19. Superman III
When Routh's Man of Steel was manipulated by Lex Luthor and the Book of Destiny into fighting Earth-38's Superman, it made for quite the visual spectacle. However, following the conclusion of that epic battle in the skies, the former revealed that it wasn't the first time he went nuts and fought himself.
Fans might have noticed that this is a direct reference to 1983's Superman III in which Christopher Reeve's Superman literally ended up fighting, well, Clark Kent. And as Superman Returns was considered a sequel to the original Superman franchise, it's possible that Earth-96's Superman is canonically the same one from those films.